iPhone 5S Announcement, What We Learned About the iPad 5

Apple unveiled two new versions of its flagship iPhone on last Tuesday, including a colourful iPhone 5C aimed at price-conscious, younger customers in fast-growing overseas markets, and Apple is also offering a traditional upgrade, the high-end iPhone 5S, for its core audience of gadget lovers. The iPhone 5S is the flagship model and it is the new features included in this model which gives us some clues as to what to expect from the iPad 5.

The iPad 5’s home button will double as a fingerprint scanner

As widely rumoured, Apple revealed that the Home button of the iPhone 5S will now double as a fingerprint reader. The sensor will allow you to register five separate fingerprints which can be read in any orientation, allowing you to register one print from your entire family or just all of your fingerprints.

It is almost a certainty that Apple – having got the technology up to speed for the iPhone – will roll out the fingerprint sensor to both the iPad 5 and iPad mini 2. Apple bought fingerprint recognition experts AuthenTec last year and have taken until now to implement that expertise into its products, and having gotten it right (in Apple’s mind at least) We’re sure they will want to implement it as widely as possible.

The iPad 5 will be powered by A7 chip

One of the big pieces of news coming out of the iPhone 5S announcement was the inclusion of the all-new A7 system-on-chip – which features the first 64-bit processor in a smartphone.

What does this mean? Essentially it means more power. All previous chips were 32-bit meaning the iPhone could only fetch 32 bits of data in a clock cycle, with the new A7 chip that has been doubled to 64 bits. The upgrade from a 32-bit CPU to a 64-bit CPU is actually pretty big, especially for the iPad. The 64-bit architecture will not only provide a nice performance boost, but also will allow for more complex graphics.

The iPad 5 will has the much bigger implications on free iWork and iLife

Now, this announcement has much bigger implications for the iPad 5 and iPad mini 2, as the 9.7in and 7.9in screens will be much more suited to creating and editing content using these apps.

Users of new iPhones and new iPads will be presented with the option to install these apps free-of-charge when they are setting up the device initially – in a move clearly signalling how Apple sees mobile devices moving from primarily content consumption devices, to content creation devices.

The iPad 5 will have a separate CPU

The iPad will have a separate CPU dedicated to reading and reaction to motion sensors. This is a bit more important for the iPhone since it plays into fitness apps, but it is still a nice upgrade for the iPad.